Where You Walk, I Will Follow
by Rose Melissa Ivashkov
Summary: Katniss is running from the home she grew up with. Seemingly out of nowhere, she meets the Peeta, the one who becomes her running away companion and in many other things.


**Hello, HG readers! This piece was originally written for the Fandom for the Hopeless, but I missed the deadline to turn it in. Anyway, this is just a one-shot. ****_Perhaps_**** I might add a small little piece to it, but that is all. A big thanks to Nicia for polishing it up. And another thanks to Kyndall Viscia for creating an awesome banner to go with it. **

My arrow might have been an outdated weapon for some time now, but it worked just as fine as a sleek bullet did. Actually, with a bow and arrow, there was less of a mess to deal with after the kill. Who wanted to deal with cleaning scattered guts and limbs? Certainly not me. I had enough trouble covering the evidence of my trail as it was.

Killing was nothing new for me. After many years of constant hunting, year after year of seeing the arrow I had shot pierce through my prey, I had become accustomed to the sight, but never to the feelings that came with killing. There was always a new emotion inside each time I saw my fallen prey. There was always a disconcerting and incomprehensible feeling. I supposed the happiness could be understandable, but the resentment?

I never knew why I felt the fury.

I pushed my rage aside; I couldn't waste any minute of my life fretting over unwanted emotions. I had to focus, _needed_ to focus. Move on from under the terror cloud my district had ruining its once beautiful skies. And I wasn't talking about the weather. A little rain wouldn't have hurt anyone; I would be perfectly fine with some rain. But the cloud that loomed over us was one made up of the leftover residue the extreme bombing had caused.

The odd and even districts were at war, odds against evens, from one to twelve, for no realistic reason, except the entertainment of those who sat on high horses; to entertain the people from the capitol. Money-hungry monsters from the capitol had created a game and the people of the districts were, unfortunately, the victims in their game. They'd sit in a large room and they'd bet ridiculous amounts of money on the odds or evens. Currently, the odds were in their favor.

There was terror raining over us at every given minute.

It wouldn't be long before the last even would be completely demolished.

The rumors had spread when one and two had been bombed, but they were just false words coming out of people that didn't know what they were speaking of half the time. Some chose to believe the gossip and began to run and some chose to stay and as a result were completely obliterated. The first time, I had ignored the stories. And now I didn't. The whispers of conversation had reached my ears and told me what I needed to know. There was a way out. There was a district that had been left alone.

District Thirteen, the United Nations of our time, the place where there was supposedly only peace and harmony. A place that could never be touched as it had the power to destroy the last remains of the world. I had been one of the lucky few to survive the attacks and now I was running, only hoping that the rumors about it had not been another thing the townspeople liked to make up in order to have something interesting to talk about.

As I sat against a rock, I heard a rumble and didn't even bother to look up toward the sky.

But I knew it was time to run once again.

District thirteen was my last chance at finally having a home.

The cloud of terror had kidnapped our perfect skies; the rain of despair would soon fall.

..

I wasn't sure how long I stayed hidden in the forest the hours preceding the bombing. I wasn't sure how long I would be able to/could keep my eyes open. I wasn't sure how long I was going to stay alive. I wasn't exactly sure what was still left of the forest that would obscure me from the peacekeepers. There had been an explosion close by and my lungs weren't exactly compatible with the great amount of smoke that was polluting the air. My throat was parched and I wasn't sure how long I could continue running.

Several hours later, I stumbled blindly around the forest, only moving forward, hoping that I could reach district thirteen with my life still intact.

As I continued forward, shadows followed me. I wouldn't allow myself to be slowed down by the shadows. I had to keep moving. I wouldn't allow death to take me. At least not without a fight. At one point, I closed my eyes. What difference did it matter if my eyes were open or not? Even with my eyes wide open, I couldn't see a thing. Now were the times when my sense of touch was the strongest.

And then, all of a sudden, someone was behind me, tackling me to the ground.

I struggled against the person, feeling hopeless as that my bow had fallen a few inches away from from my reach.

"Calm down and stay down. They're behind us," they—or _he_ whispered in my ear. "If they catch us, we'll be used as bait for the bears. Shh, stop fighting me! We're on the same side—stop!"

He was rough in his words and in his actions, but he was also completely calm. The serenity radiated from him and seeped into me.

I stayed put, not because I had no desire to leave the warmth of his body, but because I still had hope for my life; I was not going to give up on my life. Not tonight.

Soon, I saw the people he had been talking about us. They breezed right past us and back toward civilization—or what was left of it.

"They're gone. Now we must keep on going if we want to make it through before the night hits us once again."

"Whoa, hold it. I don't even know who you are!" I whispered into the darkness.

He rolled over, getting himself off me but continued to lay right beside me on the ground. He turned slightly, giving me a boyish grin, mixed in with a little bit of cheekiness. I had no idea what he looked like, but just with hearing the sound of his voice I was captivated. I blamed my fascination to my desire to live and help out our people. There was a little bit of blame to my suddenly wild hormones, but that was beside the point. He was a man, and I was a woman. Both lonely in this world. We'd found each other. . .wasn't that enough?

"I like to keep my identity a secret, like in those TV shows that kill our brain cells when we watch them, back in the day when everyone wasn't wanting to blow their brains out. But then again, the shows were pretty entertaining, if you ask me."

There was enough moonlight shining down on us that I could see his bright eyes; his blue eyes were nothing short of amazing, and I had trouble keeping myself from looking into them.

"On my side of town, the only entertainment we had was shooting arrows through any animal lying around. Well, I shot arrows. Other people could actually afford the least expensive gun."

"I used to kill animals by throwing flour sacks on them."

I couldn't deduce if he was being truthful or if he was wanting to give me a kick in the gut by resorting to sarcasm.

"Uh. . ."

"Used to feed my cheese buns to the birds, but that was back in the day."

"Um. . ." I wasn't exactly sure what to say. I hadn't had any human contact in a while, verbal or physical. Even before, social interactions hadn't exactly been my forte.

"My name is Peeta Mellark, from District twelve. I saw you walking around town every now and then." He covered my mouth for a few seconds and I didn't make a move to remove the hand from me. Were the peacekeepers nearby again? "Well, I told you my name. And it has been a few minutes since we met first the first time, we exchanged a couple of words. You know me now."

"_You _don't even know me!" I shot back.

"I know enough. Come on. We have to continue running." Peeta shot up from the ground and sauntered forward.

I stood up from the ground, beginning to walk the opposite direction from him.

"Where are you going?" he asked, incredulously.

"My own way."

Peeta followed after me a second later. "What's your name, by the way?"

"Katniss," I said, stepping around a fallen branch. "And where are _you _going?" I asked, now it was me who was annoyed.

"Where you walk, I will follow," he said simply.

..

The guy hadn't been kidding when he said he was following me wherever I went, I realized as I continued to trudge through the thick vegetation. He stayed right behind me, aiding me when it seemed my own clumsy feet would become tangled in the mess of fallen twigs and bushes. He would even lift me when the fallen trees appeared to be too difficult to jump over. As the hours of the night progressed, I became more relaxed in his presence and he knew his way his around the forest.

"Come on, Katniss. District thirteen is not that far away now. I recognize the mountains. We're not so far away from a better life."

Peeta's words were a wonderful caress to my body, they resonated throughout my ears and comforted me—that was until two large animals came into our way of view, seemingly out of nowhere. I rested my hand against Peeta's shoulder, in a warning, when I realized he hadn't noticed the strange animals. He stilled beside me, somehow managing to tangle his hand with my own; he pushed me a ways behind me, still keeping hold of my hand.

"Don't worry. I'll keep you safe. Now, I'll distract them. . .and run off. I know I can keep them distracted enough so that you'll make it safely to Thirteen."

"I am not leaving you," I told him calmly. "I don't know you, but something is telling me to trust you."

"Something is telling _me _to get you the hell away from here, even it means giving up my life."

I didn't have time to choke up, but I wanted to.

"I am nobody to die for," I told him simply.

"You're a brave girl," he told me, looking back at me for a second before his eyes were on the two large beasts.

I didn't answer him; I reached around my back and grasped my bow in one hand and took an arrow in my other hand. I positioned my bow in my hand, aligning the arrow and directing my aim toward one of the beasts' eyes. I only took a moment to hesitate, to think. Once the arrow shot off, the beats would be alerted to our presence. My moment to myself was over and it was time to for the action to start. It was going to be an ugly fight, but one we had to go through in order to make it back to safety.

"You can do this for you."

It was his compassion, his comfort—his presence that helped me gain courage and finally let go of the arrow. My next actions happened within the minute, and every other second was wasted setting off arrows and watching them fly away right into my targets, the beasts' eyes.

I closed my eyes, my whole body shaking, knowing I had failed them.

"They're dead," he mumbled over to me. "You did it, brave girl."

"I'm scared to death," I whispered into the night.

"I am here for you—Katniss. But not right now. I need you to run." There was a strange note in his voice, one that made me freeze up. I followed the line of his gaze and noticed there was a large group of peacekeepers, a group we could take down but with only one of us a victor.

Peeta stepped forward, not looking at me. "Stay back. I'll go and once I am there. Run. Run like crazy. Don't like back. Don't wait for me."

I nodded my head, but he couldn't see me. "I am here for you."

"Run, Katniss!" he said to me, almost in a soft yell.

I moved upwards, standing right beside him. Without looking at him, I took hold of his hand and tangled his fingers with my own. Peeta glanced down at me, at our entangled hands between us, a blank look in his eyes.

I told him, "Where you walk, I will follow."

Not far in the distance, we could see the intimidating line of peace keepers.

The cloud of terror was now raining down on us.

**Thanks for reading :) I'd like to hear your thoughts. **


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